Goodbye Garvan Institute

Friday was my last day at the Garvan Institute. (Though, I still needed to present my presentation on Monday). I was having a goodbye lunch in the cutest Japanese restaurant with all my lab colleagues and several friends from other labs at Garvan. My supervisor Kylie said the most lovely words about my dedication and had spoken out her appreciation. It was really a compliment to me to receive those words as a student from a well-established Post Doc scientist in the field of Immunology. It was very thoughtful of them to purchase me typical Australian goodbye gifts: Sydney Recipe Book, two boxes of delicious Tim Tams, and a tube of Vegemite. I also happily received a card with goodbye messages from my fellow scientists. After unwrapping my gifts, I was sort of expected to give a little Speech. Scarily, under the full attention of every customer in the full house restaurant I might add. Off course, I hadn't prepared anything. But because I was so grateful to their kindness and helpfulness throughout the entire course of my internship, I really did wanted to say a few spontaneous words as a token for my appreciation. It was one of those moments, that when I look back to it I was really surprised that the words came out of my mouth so fluidly and smoothly. For once, my English wasn't limiting the rapid pace of my thoughts as it often does when my brain waves get too excited. Afterwards, we went for drinks in the pub Greenhotel. It was nice to get drunk with my colleagues. As my internship was terminating anyway, I did not had to maintain much dignity. And I surely didn't. Don't tell the Garvan Institute, but I kind of threw up in the toilets there.

All weekend I was preparing for my final presentation, which I had to give on Monday. I must say, normally, I am not that nervous when it comes down to presenting. But also normally, I present to fellow students who have relatively the same knowledge as I have. Now I was presenting in front of my lab colleagues who have been in the field for many years. Compared to them, I know peanuts! Therefore, I was nervous. I slept really badly that night, waking up in the middle of the night to write down nice phrases for my presentation. It was like I was still working on my presentation in my dreams. However, once I started presenting I was actually feeling quite calm and relaxed. I was taking control. I knew my project, and I was talking the talk. I was confident. It was quite scary, though, to be presenting my results in front of prof. Jonathan Sprent, head of the department, and a very respected Immunologist. But he was really friendly and it seemed like I had caught his interest. He, of course, gave great suggestions about my projects, and made me think about things that left me wondering: Why didn't I think of that!? Eventually, he complimented me about my presentation, and he thought that I did a lot of work for such a short period of time. That was a compliment! Because normally, I always have the feeling like you never have done enough experiments. He also asked me when I was coming back again, ha-ha. Finally, my supervisor showed me the assessment form she filled out for me. My final report, presentation, and most of my lab skills were graded with excellent, except for my common knowledge and creativity, which was graded with very good. I was filled with happiness! Overall, my project should be receiving the grade: 9.5 - 10. That would be just the perfect ending of my internship!

I enjoyed working at the Garvan Institute so much. The people are really friendly. The vibe is good. I had the most amazing supervisor. The best colleagues. My project was challenging. Everyday, I was looking forward to be going to the lab. At home, I kept thinking about how to improve my project. When I look back at what I knew before I started my internship, and what I know now after my internship ended: there's a big knowledge gap. I've been taught so much. And it just makes me realize more and more how much I want this, how much I enjoy being in the field of Medical Research. When I get back home to the Netherlands, there is an awesome graduation project waiting for me, which will be a collaboration with Leiden, Amsterdam, and Toronto. Something to be looking forward to!

But until then,

I am going to travel and explore the beauties of down under'!

I am going to swap my medical journals, with good books.

My chemicals, with cocktails.

My pipettes, with a compass.

My laboratory, with beaches and mountains.

My mice, with wildlife.

I am liking this...

Flying to Brissie on my B-day

On my birthday, I smoothly landed in Brisbane to be received by Lianne and Matthew. It was so nice to see them! We enthusiastically walked through the streets of Brisbane, and entered a Bottle Shop to buy a big box of Tooheys Extra Dry (= best Australian beer). Lianne's house in Brisbane was amazing! It was huge. I mean really huge. I was lost in that Queensland house many times that weekend. She's living there with nine other international, outgoing house mates. Among them were Irish boys, whom were drinking away on the big balcony preparing for next days' St. Patricksday. Lianne, Matthew and I hid in her room as we had a lot to catch up to. I hadn't seen Matthew, friend from Stockholm, in ages! The box of TED beer was meant for the entire weekend, but we accidentally drank all of it on that Friday night. Whoops. With beer in our belly, we forgot dinner, called a taxi and went to party in Brisbane Nightlife! These next bits of my memory are a bit blur. We saw so many pubs in both the suburb West End and The Valley.

We also had a lovely midnight pizza snack and went home at an unknown hour. I woke up at 9 AM, and found the Irish Boys drinking again at 10 AM to celebrate St Paddy's. My god, hardcore. Matthew, Lianne and I scored some heavy Bacon & Eggs Brekkie and strolled down Brisbane Center. I was in love with South Bank Parklands. This is a pretty area with an artistic street surrounded by bright purple flowers.

Also, the location of Brisbane's artificial beach resides there. We laid in the grass for hours and ran into the Irish Boys in city center. We joined them for beers in a cheerful pub at 1 PM. We drank while listening to Irish Folk music and the more we drank, the harder it became to unravel the Irish accent.

Drunk Irish boys talk weird. We forgot lunch, and aside from a piece of bread with creme fréche we forgot dinner too. Lianne's house was hosting a St Paddy's house party and soon it became crowded. I was witnessing Irish dance moves and it involved more beer.

Lianne also bought a bottle of Southern Comfort. At some stage in the night, I walked with Lianne towards a room near the living area. She said while opening the door, ''I always hide my bottles in this room during party's. Because no-one ever comes here.'' The door was not even half opened or it got slammed in her face. Though, we did see some-one putting pants on in the brief second the door was open. Haha. Fuck. People were having sex in an apparently not so abandoned room where the bottle of Southern Comfort lives. I knocked on the door and screamed, ''We only want the bottle of Southern Comfort!!'' Upon which the door rapidly opened, and only an arm stretched out with our bottle. After a while, we decided to go the city. We were being overly friendly to our Indian taxi driver and talked a lot about India becoming a Science Powerhouse. Haha, he was happy and we just made his day. Lianne next introduced me to more friends and we went bar-hopping.

We ended up in a big club called the Beat. The vibe was amazing! I just felt like i was given a delicate task to spread my happiness to strangers. I could not stop dancing!!! The music drew me all night long. You would not spot me without a smile, nor dancing body. At a very late, or call it early, hour we took a taxi back home. It was already bright outside and I slept at 6 AM. At 10:30 I woke up and found a house filled with empty beer bottles and passed out people everywhere. Lianne's big bruise like gangrene on her leg, and my bleeding pus thumb raised question marks. We dropped Matt off at the airport and Lianne and I had an amazing lunch with Big English Brekkie and Spanish Omelette. Sunday night we took it easy, as our muscles were very sore. It was so funny to notice that our Dutch language skills were so crap. We kept talking a mixture of Dutch English and said sentences such as ''Het ding is dat...'', and we questioned everything we were saying in Dutch. That night, we watched a few movies. I was so tired. I even fell asleep while watching Brokeback Mountain. Sleeping through Heath Ledger kissing Jake Gyllenhaal is not gay-worthy, embarrassing, but does emphasize the intensity of my tiredness. On Monday I flew back to Sydney. I had an amazing birthday weekend in Brisbane!

Now its time for lots of sleep, fruit, and vegetables. Lots of it.

Winning Karaoke at Stonewall

Last Tuesday night, I joined Linda for her birthday party dinner that was being held in the restaurant ''Commons''. It was nice to meet her - all male - friends. I guess she is a boy-kinda girl. I had so much fun and the vibe was really nice. It was nice to be part of a group of friends eating out. (Instead of watching a group of friends eating out, while you're sitting at a table for one: Hong Kong flashback.) We went to a pub afterwards, and had a few beers. As it was a weekday I was on my way back home, via the Garvan to grab my bike, round eleven-ish. However, again I succumbed at Oxf. Str. when I passed my favourite bar Stonewall. I told myself initially that I wouldn't go in for ''one drink'' - we all know what that means. But when I heard karaoke blasting through the speakers; I was tempted. Also, because I remembered a promise I made myself during my first week in Sydney, when I visited this Stonewall karaoke session on my first night out. I was jet-lagged then, insecure, and intimidated by everything. But I promised myself, that night, that I would come back strong, confident, and crazy and would sing the song Faith by George Michael. I wanted to challenge myself, to feel free and limitless. As my time here is ticking away, I justified my temptation by that promise and spontaneously entered the pub with confidence. The night had come. It was crowded, a drag queen was glittering while hosting the karaoke, and the spotlights were brightly lit on stage. I quickly socialized with some Swedish girls at the bar for moral support. (By the way, to my satisfaction I happily noticed that I really have learned to make social contacts so easily). Upon entering, I immediately signed in my song request. I would not allow second thoughts. I was getting nervous as time was passing. I kept thinking:

I am alone, in a crowded gay bar in Sydney, just signed in a request to sing a Karaoke song in front of mean judgmental gays, and I am not even drunk!

Though, I think doing crazy stuff and challenging yourself keeps the soul young. But all I could think of then was: Why am I doing these things to myself. Finally, the drag queen announced my song and there was no going back. The intro was being played and I was shaking my bootie like George Michael in his tight jeans. I loved every minute of it. I knew the song quite well. It had a nice up-tempo beat. I was using the entire stage, and I think I didn't even sing off-tune ....for most parts that is. I was feeling like a superstar!! My performance was inspired by Jessie J, whom concert I went to see last week. She just has this amazing vibe of: FUCK IT. HERE I AM. LOVE YOURSELF. EMBRACE. I was aspiring to get that vibe across to the audience. They seemed to like it! Everyone was cheering, dancing and I did not get booed away! (Unlike some other participants. Tough crowd). I really connected with the audience. At the end of the night, the drag queen re-announced the potential winner names of the initial, more or less, twenty participants. The amount of cheer volume by the audience would determine the winner. I did not think I was going to win, because I did not bring any friends to cheer for me. But upon hearing my name, the crowd just went crazy! I felt so happy, confident, strong, and sexy. My personal victory achieved. Just the way I imagined it would be when I made that promise, on my first night in Sydney as an insecure, naive boy with big dreams in a big city. (Ok, fair enough, karaoke is more like a medium-sized dream.)

Nevertheless, it felt good.

p.s. the price included 100 dollars. I actually earned money while eating out and drinking beers, which did not involve taking my clothes off. Awesome!!

p.p.s. Next day I was walking on Oxf Str. to go home from work, when this guy approached me: ''Hey, didn't you sing Faith yesterday!? You were awesome!!'' I was recognized on the streets! :D

Spit bridge to Manly Scenery walk

Today was the perfect day to try out my new bought hiking shoes. The wetness of last Thursday's rain had disappeared and the sun was shining proudly. Together with two Swedish girls, Nadja and Emmie, we had decided to do the famous Spit Bridge to Manly Scenery walk. This 10 km walk lines the entire coast line of North Sydney.

The first part was mainly through an area with densed trees, rocks, and waterfalls. It had more of a rain forest kinda a vibe. Even though it was noontime with a strong sun shining, the shades of the trees kept us cool and it was quite humid as well.We spotted at least 20 lizards. It was obviously there niche. They made us feel like we were walking into the movie set of Jurassic Park. It was so

weird to me that such beautiful nature was present so near to the city. I had a feeling as if we were walking somewhere in the Amazon rim boo.After a few kilometers we ended up relaxing at a cute, small, deserted beach with soft white sand and water as clear as blue eyes of a hawk. We chilled there for some time, an ideal moment to escape the heat by swimming in the cold water. We continued our journey and the rain forest ambiance was replaced by a more open, hot area with no humidity at all. It was very dry, as if in a desert. Beside lizards, we also had spotted numerous amounts of spiders in all sorts and shapes. These spiders especially enjoyed each others company and therefore big family spider webs were seen adjacent of one other. Very intimidating I can tell you, to walk past a family of big, hairy spiders. Emmie kept screaming ''Fan''! (swedish for shit/damn!) every time we saw a spider cluster. After a while, Nadja and I noticed through the bush that there was a nice view waiting for us behind the trees. As we tried to work our way through the bush, as real adventurers off-track scratching ourselves in the process, we finally managed to glance at the beautiful scenery of Manly Beach. When we got back on the path we discovered that five meters ahead there was a look-out post with the same view. Haha! Ah well, at least we felt like we ''discovered'' something for a brief moment. Not long after that, we made it to our final destination. It was a nice stroll through beautiful, typical Australian environment.
Especially the combination of the rain forest vibe, private beach moment, and the dry desert feeling made it a diverse bush-walk. And my hiking shoes did an awesome job. Now I am going to sleep, tanned, tired, but content.

Severe weather warning as rain lashes Sydney

So apparently there was a weather alarm in Sydney this morning, which was raised for good reasons considering the fact that 120 millimeters of rain had fallen down (In comparison, in the Netherlands it rains 65 mm/month). This brought a halt to city's transport system and caused hundreds of rescues and evacuations. Sydney suffered its heaviest rainfall in five years. Of course I was set for a big experiment that day that took me seven days to prepare. While every other sane human being would just have called it a day and gone back to sleep, I was surviving on my bike through this wild rain fall in the dark at 06:30. The much feared hill in the park turned into a waterfall roughly colliding against my bike. Streets became rivers, pedestrians became swimmers, and cyclers became warriors. I thought to myself: ''Why am I doing this!? I don't even get paid!'' But my preparations, curiosity, and responsibility as a scientist took al my sense of sanity away. More importantly, from a functional perspective the heavy rain took the ability of my bike to brake away. At every cross section I just prayed that no vehicle would approach me. Other than that, I must say I took the appropriate measures, to the extent that was possible that is, to tame this horrible weather. I brought a second outfit with me in a plastic bag inside my backpack. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring a second pair of underwear. At 07:00 A.M. I was pipetting with a cold, wet ass. These cells better be worth it.

(Picture: Sydney Morning Herald)

Sydney Mardi Gras

The rain has been pouring heaps here last couple of days. Sydney's dam, Warragamba Dam (those funny aboriginals derived names; there's a suburb called Woolloomooloo, and a city called Wagga Wagga ) is even on the verge of spilling. It has reached 98 percent of its capacity. While Sydney usually is struggling with enormous drought during this period of time, leading to water restrictions supply, now floods and evacuations have been reported in several suburbs. As for me, I am not feeling that comfortable with riding my bike to work anymore considering the sky is falling down on my head. Therefore, I've been taking the bus to work lately. A disadvantage, though, is that I have to walk through Oxford Street, Sydney's gay street, to reach my bus stop. Last thursday night on my way home from a long day in the lab, I could not just resist the temptation of going for one drink when I spotted a friend on the terrace of Stonewall. The atmosphere was so nice, as this weekend the Gay festival Sydney Mardi Gras is being held. It is one of the largest of such festivals in the world. So what was supposed to be one drink obviously led to many more. The vibe was so good. My drinks were being paid for. And many overseas travelers were present for this particular event. I even caught myself speaking Swedish at some point. As the night progresses, a drag queen was giving away prices in a lottery setting. You could obtain these tickets by purchasing drinks. Luck was on my side when my ticket number was being announced. I panicked.

I just think that drag queens can be very intimidating. The bar was packed and my number was being re-announced. My friend noticed that it was my ticket number and consequently shouted and pushed me on stage. So there I was, in a packed gay bar in Sydney, on the stage next to one of Australia's most famous drag queens. I thought if I just keep smiling everything will be all right. I just stood there smiling. Even if she would insult me, something drag queens can easily do in a glamourous manner, smiling would be the best response. Though, she was being very friendly. She asked me where I was from on which I replied: Amsterdam!!! (I had this feeling ''Schiedam'' wasn't going to do the trick) The price I won was an awesome shirt with the logo of Mardi Gras (see picture). However, this drag lost all her grace when she whispered in my ear: ''Why don't you come over to my place tonight and I'll shag your brains out''. While smiling, I told her: ''Sorry, I don't swing that way''. That is just not my thing. But nevertheless, my rejection did not get the best of her when she pushed away two guys at the bar who were blocking my way: ''OI!! MOVE!!" Very handy to have a drag queen on your side.

Saturday is the famous Sydney Mardi Gras Parade on Oxf. Street. Unlike many tourists desperately competing for a spot to watch the parade from, I will be viewing the parade at Glamour Bar with my kiwi gal. Apparently her uncle bought these - very expensive - tickets for us. Fabulous!

Glamour bar: This is the most glamorous way to view the parade, within arms reach of the parade. Your entrance ticket to this VIP stand up bar area includes all of your food and drinks for the evening, a raised viewing platform, a DJ performing exclusively for Glamour Bar Zoom guests, and its own toilet amenities. The Glamour Bar menu includes gourmet snacks and canapés served by a team of wait staff and two food stalls offering hand prepared items by special chefs throughout the night. Beer, wine, sparkling wine and soft drinks are all inclusive and served from a number of bars around the Glamour Bar site.

Furthermore...

I have been clean on cookies for five days now...

Therefore, in order to celebrate this,

I am aiming on getting too drunk to blog..!